A Thousand New Paths

By Atonia

(Follows The Golden Orb)

Part 1

The ship had docked in Tokyo three hours ago but David and Charlie were not allowed to leave because their papers had not arrived. Still bruised and battered she’d made her way up to the lounge area with David at her side, waiting.

"Do you think something’s gone wrong?" she asked.

He shook his head slightly, "We’re waiting for someone but I do not know who." He looked out of the window to the deck below and saw the crew lining up. "Something is happening."

Charlie couldn’t see from her seat and so she watched his face change from curiosity to absolute joy. He stood up, "I must go down."

"Okay…" she shifted her seat after he left and leaned on the back of the chair. Three men dressed in Arab garb had boarded the ship and appeared to be greeting the crew, walking slowly and speaking to them.  They were soon out of her sightline and so she sat back in the chair looking out over the port.

Someone had found her a pair of white men’s pants, part of a uniform but at least they fit fairly well. She wore one of  David’s  shirts tied at her waist and a pair of flip flops. She’d been barefoot when she went down the zigzagged stairs to the sea from his house in Hong Kong. Her toes were shades of purple on her right foot which was bound tightly and she wore a bright blue cast on her right arm from her hand to just below the elbow. She adjusted the rolled up sleeves on the shirt and sighed.

David went down to the deck staying well in the shadows way from the crew, but he would pass this way to enter. He watched his friend with his white robes billowing about him making his way to the end of the row. Erect, chin up, bearded now; he wasn’t quite as tall as David but much the same size. Underneath his headpiece his hair would be dark and curly; probably cut shorter now as he was older. He was married with three children. He was coming.

Prince Ali stopped when he saw Blaine and then he continued on taking him by the arm inside the ship to the captain’s cabin. There he turned to him, kissed him on both cheeks and embraced him.

"Blaine…you have not changed at all, my dear."

"You look well, Ali."

"I am much better now that I see you alive. You were really going to do it…" his dark eyes filled with concern he ran a hand down David’s arm to his hand and squeezed it and let it go.

"Yes, there was no other way for me, for my family."

"I understand but now the price has been paid. I chose him carefully he had his own price to pay so do not worry. I had no idea it would come to this; I am afraid my apologizes count for nothing, for in a way I have taken your life from you. You whom I love.

"I have your papers, I used the photograph you sent to me and was able to get a photo of the girl from her embassy. She has been in my country did you know this?"

"She has been in many countries."

Ali smiled a little, "I had her checked out, I couldn’t resist. You have chosen well."

"Thank you. We have not really had time to know much about each other. She was injured trying to get to the foot of the hillside where I was taken."

"Not seriously…"

"No but you know don’t you?"

"Yes everything is reported to me. I wish to meet with her while I am here."

"I would like for you to meet her. How long will you be here?"

"Only  for an hour. I wanted to deliver the papers to you personally." He winked, "actually I wanted to see you again."

David smiled, "It is good to see you again. You have been very generous with me."

"I owe you much more and will do more. There is a draft in this pouch for you to claim at my bank and also for the girl. I have taken two lives and will do all I can for you. I beg your forgiveness, Blaine. You know if I had any idea it would come to you this way I would never have begun the story."

"There was no way to foresee where it would lead."

"I would like to take you with me but I know you will not come. I respect your wishes and I understand. Do you know where you will go?"

"No, I cannot go to England and claim my father’s estate and I cannot go to China. I have never lived anywhere else. There are many paths to take and I must choose carefully."

"Take your time there is no hurry. An apartment has been obtained for you here in Tokyo for as long as you wish to stay. I look at you and I want to weep for what I have done."

"Please, I will find my way again."

Ali moved from his chair and took David’s face in his hands and kissed him gently. "I must leave, but first I will see your Charlie."

"She is in the lounge."

"Let me speak with her alone. Do not worry," he smiled and left the room. David went out on the deck with his leather pouch to smoke a cigarette.

Charlie looked up when the door opened expecting to see David and was a little alarmed, she tried to get up.

"Please, my dear do not get up," Ali went to her and sat down in the chair she’d been in earlier. "I am your David’s friend, Ali."

"I’m very honored to meet you."

"The honor is mine. You are feeling much better I hope?"

"Yes, I’m pretty tough so I’ll heal. Are you the one that gave me the dowry…I want to thank you, that was very kind."

"It was the least I could for you. Blaine has the necessary papers to take to the bank. Has he ever mentioned me to you?"

Charlie looked at him a moment, "He said you loved him."

"Did he? Well that is true I do," he looked down. "I have told him just now how very sorry I am for what has happened. I want to say that to you, I am sorry for taking your life from you. He will not ask for anything and so I will tell you now, if ever he needs anything, money, diplomatic help…anything you are to call me and let me know." He brought out a gold case and took a card from it, "That will get you to me personally."

"Thank you," she took the card, "It is true that you took our lives, mine wasn’t anything special, not much going for me but his…well it may be hard for him to find it again."

"I will tell you something about Blaine. He has been an outsider his whole life. His father died when he was only eight years old. At that time he was a typical English schoolboy but he was taken back to Hong Kong and to his mother’s house. He was not allowed to speak English and his Chinese at that time he has told me was nonexistent. He had to learn a whole different way of living. He adapted well to the customs and language after awhile, but you have only to look at him to know he is not Chinese. He was not accepted by other children. Children can sometimes be very cruel.

"He was sent to England at the age of 14 and by that time he was fully immersed in his Chinese heritage. I met him at school when he was sixteen. A more beautiful young man I have never known. He was very much withdrawn from his surroundings, however he was an excellent student, and I was his tutor in mathematics. He had created his own little world and that’s where he lived.

"Yes…that’s what he did at his house in Hong Kong."

Ali smiled, "He has not changed so much. We were together for six years"

"That’s a long time. May I ask you something…I was told he might be gay but I’ve found that isn’t so. Is he…is he bisexual?"

"No, he is straight as an arrow, but I tried because I loved him. Love him, Charlie and take care of him; he will need you. Now I must go." He rose and kissed her hand and left.

Charlie turned the card over in her hand thinking about the man who had just left her. He was a strong personality and yet David had resisted him. She tucked the card in her pocket and thought there was so much to learn about him and she was thankful for a little insight from Ali.

Ali walked out to the deck where Blaine was standing, "I will leave you now, I wish you much happiness with your Charlie and remember always I am here for you." He looked towards the port. "I didn’t tell you your new name, Blaine Davidson. It is not so hard to remember is it?" he smiled and embraced him once again.

"Thank you again for everything you have done for me. I will let you know where I am."

"You had better let me know," he chuckled, " ah they are ready for me. Good bye my brother."

David took his hand in both of his and bowed. A quick embrace followed and he watched Ali join his men and leave. It would have been easy for him to have left with Ali, to be taken care of without worry of any kind, but Ali was a torture he could no longer endure.

Part 2

Blaine was at the window of the penthouse apartment looking down on the city that seemed to stretch forever. He turned hearing Charlie come to him and held out his hand for her.

"What to you see, David?"

"It is like Hong Kong too much of everything but without a path to my home."

She slipped her arm around his waist and leaned into him, "We’ll find that path, maybe not here but it’s out there somewhere.

They depended on the building concierge to take care of their needs. David had been to the bank and applied for credit cards in their names but other than that he had remained in the apartment. Charlie was still dealing with her sprained ankle and through the concierge had found a doctor to take a look at it in hopes the bindings might come off so she could walk a little better.

A week later and she was wearing an elastic bandage on her ankle. She was not used to being cooped up and was longing to get out and explore the city. David, having found the building’s library contented himself with reading.

She was looking at her new British Passport; Charlene Davidson…Ali had given her David’s last name.  "Are we supposed to be married?"

"I’m sorry?" he looked up from his book.

"My name is the same as yours."

"Yes."

"Nice way of getting married, just change your name…skip all the ceremonies."

"Do you want to get married is that what you want?"

"No, no I was just…thinking. Would you if I did?"

"Yes if that is what you desire."

"I don’t think it’s necessary right now." She lay the passport on the coffee table and pulled her knees up on the sofa.

"How long do you think we’ll be here?"

"Until you are healed. Are you getting restless?"

She grinned up at him, "Yes I am. I’m not used to being so confined. It’s a nice apartment and all but…I think you know what I mean."

"I am very sorry to have caused you so much pain."

"You’re not painful, not painful at all; you’re a soothing balm." She leaned her head back on the sofa, he was a balm; his quietness calmed her, but she wondered sometimes what that quietness contained. He lived more within himself than out, what would happen should he ever let that stoic countenance drop. She wished she’d had more time to talk to Ali, if anyone knew him at all it would have been him.

"How did you meet Ali?"

He closed his book, "He was assigned to tutor me in mathematics. I met him in the library."

"What did you think of him?"

"I thought he was very patient with me and he is not by nature a patient man. He is brilliant, I found out over the course of time."

"Six years, he told me. It must have been very um hard for him to be with you feeling the way he did."

"Not so hard, I think." He smiled a little. "He befriended me, brought me out of the cocoon I had woven around myself and introduced me to his friends. He opened up my world."

"He was in love with you, still is isn’t he? I can’t imagine six years without having that love returned."

"It was returned."

"You may not like this but I specifically asked him if you were bisexual, I had to know."

He moistened his lips, "I am not, there are some things I could not bring myself to do but love him, yes.  It was not easy for me, he can be very persuasive and there were times when I thought I might give in. Part of me wanted to but he respected me in that way."

"It wouldn’t matter to me if you were, I just…wanted to know."

He tilted his head, "And what will you do with this knowledge?"

"Well… I’m not sure maybe I’ll put it in the mental notebook I’m keeping on you, all the little things that make up who you are. I got the impression he is a strong influence, a man used to getting what he wants. I can’t imagine living with you and not having you."

"We did not live together, our rooms were on different floors and he is not as strong as he appears. Would you like some tea?" He lay his book down and made to get up.

"Let me make it, I need to move around." He didn’t want to talk about Ali to her and that was okay. She went into the kitchen area and plugged in the kettle.

"I was reading something in one of the magazines about Shinjuku Gyoen the Japanese imperial gardens I thought that might be something you would be interested in seeing. It said there was a huge greenhouse with lots of exotic flowers."

"I think you would like to get out of this aerie and spread your wings a little. Yes I would like to go there with you, but do you think you could walk through gardens and greenhouses?"

"The doc told me I should walk on it and if I get tired and sore I’m sure there will be a bench somewhere to sit." She brought him a cup of tea and sat down beside him on the sofa.

"Do you want to go now?"

"What do you want to do, David?"

"If you do we still have time today…"

"No I asked you what you wanted to do. Every time I ask you something it comes right back at me as though you’re afraid to make a decision. Yes we do have time today but if you’d rather finish your book that’s okay too, we’ve all the time in the world to walk a garden." She sipped her tea.

"Perhaps tomorrow we can make a day of it."

"That wasn’t so hard was it?" she teased him.

"I only want to please you, Charlie. I look at your arm in a cast and your foot in bandage and I know I caused this. It pains me."

"Don’t do that, don’t go there, love. That’s all behind us now."

"I heard your screams as I was being taken away and I wanted to go to you and let you know I was alive but I couldn’t break away. I tried…and it was only after I was brought to the ship that I was able to make someone understand that they must go back for you. They did not know, they had no orders where you were concerned. I didn’t know you were injured until you were brought on board."

She reached out and put her hand on his arm, "It’s okay now, we’re here and..."

He put his cup on the table, "It is not okay. I have much to atone for, two deaths at my company, innocent people. The shame and dishonor that I brought to my mother’s house, your injuries and the man who sacrificed himself for me. Because of me you have lost your life."

"You’ve lost yours too and this whole orb thing wasn’t your doing. You didn’t launch the story. Stop blaming yourself for something someone else has done."

"I knew the story from the beginning and I said nothing."

"You won’t let it go will you. There is no way to go back and change anything now. You’ve been given a second chance make something good out of it. I’m here with you willing to go and do whatever it is you want to do. The life I had before, working for Cramer, is not a life I’d go back and want to live again. I made my choice before your aborted attempt to kill yourself. And you knew, at least I think you did, that I intended to prevent that from happening; that’s why I was drugged. I love you, David and we have this second chance to live a different life…together if that’s what you want."

"I don’t know how to live a different life, I can’t see it yet. I love you too and I want to, to make it good for you to make up for what you have lost. But I can do nothing until I find the path."

"Do you think maybe with two of us looking for it finding that path might be a little easier? You’re not alone anymore, David."

"I know and in a way that frightens me. If I take the wrong path there is no one but me to worry about but there are two of us now and if I don’t make the right choice then I have taken your life again. It is very important what happens to us."

Charlie moved over to him and put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "It is important, but what’s most important to me is you and for me that is a beginning because there has never been anyone in my life like you, I’ve never loved anyone or trusted anyone enough to put myself in their hands the way I have you. There are no wrong paths it’s only what we make of it."

Part 3

Touring the gardens was a success as far as David was concerned, he was interested in the plants and the way they were positioned in the landscape, the choices that were made. Aesthetically it suited him and he found a place to meditate, something he hadn’t done since he left Hong Kong.

Charlie found a bench and sat down admiring the gardens and the views but after awhile some things about it bothered her. It brought back memories of her childhood, where her father was the gardener. It had been a rather large garden for the area and her father worked it daily. No grass or weeds grew in his garden but what she remembered were the many shrubs and trees he planted. Pruned within an inch of their life into balls and squares, a shape Mother Nature had not intended.

 She recalled visiting a garden open to the public with her mother once where plantings were allowed their natural shape, some sprawling about, some upright, some fan shaped. That was the first time she became aware of her mother’s desire for a wild and free garden, something she would never have with her father. Like the bonsai in the greenhouse here, she turned her head in that direction. David…David had been pruned at an early age, not allowed his true shape. Bound with traditions until the Englishness of him had all but disappeared.

She got to her feet and walked toward the little teahouse where he had gone to meditate. Somehow, if there was any way possible she wanted to remove those bindings from him…if it wasn’t too late.

They walked along in silence for a while holding hands. "David, did you see any paths while meditating?"

"My mind is not settled I couldn’t make myself go where I wanted to."

"That’s understandable, a lot has happened lately. Mine’s not settled either. Have you enjoyed your visit here today?"

"Very much, a good idea you had."

"You had a house in Coventry right?"

"My father’s house…"

"But it was yours…when was the last time you were there?"

"When I left school I went there for awhile before returning to Hong Kong."

"What was it like?"

"A large old house with many unused rooms; I thought of selling it but it was the only thing I had of him."

"Do you remember him at all?"

"Yes. He was a big man even to my young eyes; he had a big voice and was always moving, doing something. He had a workshop in back of the garden and made things. He made a garden seat for my mother."

"How did they meet?"

"I don’t know; he was in Hong Kong for awhile working, I suppose they met then. I never asked."

"Why don’t we go there…?"

"Coventry? I cannot claim the house again. It will be sold at auction that is the way of property when one does not leave instructions. My affairs in Hong Kong were in order, everything I had there will go to my mother but I had not included the house in Coventry."

"Was that an oversight or did you think she might not want it?"

"She would have no use for it. She was never happy in England."

"I imagine you were as a little boy before your father died, what happened to him?"

"Automobile accident, it was very sudden…he was gone from our lives."

"I’d still like to see the house…"

"It is gone from my life." He looked at her for a moment, "Why did you think of it?"

"I was just thinking of gardens earlier and somehow that floated into my mind. I told you it wasn’t settled," she smiled. "Let’s stop for tea."

"Are you tired…I forgot about your ankle…"

"No, I’m just thirsty." She put her arm through his. Her ankle ached but it wasn’t important enough to break up the day.

They found a tearoom and ordered some small sandwiches.

"David, why didn’t you stay in England?"

He looked up at her, "There was nothing there for me. I did not belong there."

"You must have made some friends while in school…"

"Ali went back to Saudi Arabia to be married at his father’s request.  The group of friends that we shared drifted apart."

"And you went to Coventry and decided you didn’t belong there, the place where you lived as a little boy."

"Yes."

"What I’m getting at, David is that neither of us belong anywhere right now. I can’t go back to my hometown, there’s nothing left there anyway…only a few scattered cousins I haven’t seen since I was a teenager. I’ve been living out of a suitcase for five years…I have no home base. You don’t either now…so I was thinking since we’ve got British passports we might go to England. We don’t have to go to Coventry, but find a place that we both like.  You might think about giving it another chance because if we stop in another country questions will have to be answered, paperwork and on and on. Things may come up we can’t answer.  We were both born in England and grew up in different places but deep down in our bones…we’re English."

He looked across the room for a moment, "I did not feel English when I lived there…"

"No and you’ll always have that connection inside of you for China, that part of you is strong. I don’t feel English either, in my mind I’m an American or at least I was in my former life. We’ve got to start thinking ahead and stop looking back. It’s easier for me and I know this isn’t going to be easy for you, love, but I’ll help you."

"You look at me and you think you see an Englishman, but I am not. I think you do not understand this. You will never find me down on the corner having fish and chips or in the pub having a pint. I lived there for eight years and I was a foreigner."

"So…let’s go be foreigner’s together.  I don’t particularly care for fish and chips myself I’ve tried them in London, too greasy for me. We’ll buy a wok."

He laughed and it pleased her to see him laugh, he so rarely laughed out loud.

"Can you cook in a wok?"

"I can’t cook in anything," she laughed back, "but I could learn, or better yet find a Chinese cook."

The mood lightened after their tea break and they did a little more walking before going back to the apartment. Dinner was as usual ordered in. They watched the lights come on over the cityscape from the sofa, she lying in his arms.

"It’s almost like painting isn’t it, a little red here a little blue there, look there a touch of hot pink."

"I used to paint…"

"Why used to, why don’t you still paint?"

"It’s been a long time since I picked up a brush and now of course I have no brushes."

"Who painted that portrait of you that you had in your house?"

"Ali. I painted one of him too which he has in his private office."

She turned slightly in his arms and he kissed her, a kiss that went on for a long time and whatever she might have been going to say was long forgotten as her body responded to his touch.

The painted cityscape slowly began to fade away as dawn approached. Blaine sat on the sofa smoking a cigarette wrapped in his dark blue silk robe. After making love to Charlie he’d lain awake and finally got up after she’d gone to sleep and watched the lights, thinking of his future. It would have to be in England, for a while anyway, they couldn’t stay in Japan indefinitely without proper papers.

Why an English passport? He closed his eyes. Ali had wanted him to go there, but why? His life in England had only been made bearable because Ali had been with him.

BACK                                                                                HOME                                                                                NEXT